Seraphina!

 Well, the great little Fjord has arrived at my friend Rochelle's place and we went to see her today. She has dealt brilliantly with the transport down here and being in a new place all on her own. When we arrived, Rochelle was leading her about the place, she seemed relaxed but interested.

Aftr a very nice lunch we brought her in and gave her a bit of a haircut, here's before:

and after! The Fjord mane is always two colours, black in the middle and blond either side, it looks so much better when it's trimmed.

The traditional cut involves having the blond bit shorter than the black bit like this:

Might take a while for me to get proficient enough to do that though, or maybe even zigzags like this!:

Then we tacked her up, she's not used to a bit so wasn't too sure about it, she's only been ridden in a headcollar before. But she went for a little walk no problem, we went to see the sand school (with Chocolate and Rochelle's dog Willie keeping an eye on us).....

....then we went into the round pen. This would've been a better pic if Jane (who took it) had got closer to the rails!! But you get the idea......

She was a little bothered by the bit and obviously didn't understand what it was for, but that's just a matter of education. Apart from that, she was a little star, the only other thing that bothered her was the fly repellant spray, but like Sky & Kinna, she'll get used to it. Looking forward to following her progress!

Another great little Fjord.....

 Went to see another pony today, for a different friend, maybe I should start hiring Alienor out as a test rider......this one was a youngster, called Seraphina, just 4 years old. She's from the same breeder as one of the Fjords at Flecha's new home, they have the same sire. She was amazingly calm for a baby, seemed to take everything in her stride, even Éowyn didn't bother her (which is more than can be said for some of the ponies at the poney club where Ali rides!!)

She stood quietly whilst she was tacked up, no pawing the ground, no signs of agitation. Obviously she wasn't bothered by dogs either!!

First one of the girls that worked at the place rode her, then Ali got into the saddle. She walked calmly up the road, steered with just a headcollar (the breeder is firmly into treeless, bitless, shoeless horses!!) and started and stopped when asked.

When a car came along she went around it no problem.....

And was happy to pass a motorcycle too! The rider was very nice and stopped for her, but she showed no hesitation!.

In a field to one side of the road there was a noisy tractor with some of the strange dangly bits on it for crop spraying, this didn't bother her either. A certain white hairy cob of my acquaintance woudn't have been able to cope with all of that lot!!! Seraphina just seems to trust you to take care of her, which is lovely! After such a positive report, my friend Rochelle is going to buy her so we are looking forward to visiting her in her new home soon!

Saw a cracking pony today......

Drove up to Niort today with my friend Tanya to look at a pony for her, she wants a nice sensible hack that she can share with her daughter. So we went to meet Jack, a 12 year old Fjord pony, and what a little star he was! Ali came with us to see how easy he was for a child to handle and her expression says it all really......

She even jumped him but he jumped with a lot more enthusiasm than Gandalf so took her by surprise!

 Really hope Tanya buys him.......sadly we can't afford to. Excellent little chap.......sort of a smaller, yellow version of Gandalf really!

Busy day.....

Went on a bit of a trek today. We'd been invited to go and visit Flecha in his new home so set off to drive the 3 hours up to Oradour Fanais, near Confolens in the Charente. He now lives with another small pony, Gypsy, and 2 Fjord ponies, Rocky and Kalix.

They make quite a nice little herd!

I love the colour of the Fjord ponies, especially the two coloured mane. Shame they don't get a bit taller, I think my feet would be down to their knees!!!

Then after that we went back to see the Breton filly Almonde. She's only about 45 minutes away from Flecha.

Turns out she's never been away from her mum or out in a trailer or out and about on the road so she could be a bit of a project.......but I'm sure she'd soon get the hang of it all like Skyfaxa has.....